NGAIO WOMAN'S 'AUCKLAND BEACH DAY' LASTS ELEVEN MINUTES BEFORE SOUTHERLY ARRIVES
The towels were laid out. The chilly bin was open. The weather had other plans, as it does.
A Ngaio family's attempt to recreate an Auckland-style beach day at Oriental Bay on Sunday lasted exactly eleven minutes before a southerly rolled in and turned the picnic blanket into a kite.
Organiser Mereana Whitiora, 42, said the forecast had been "fine and 19" when she left the house at 11am with three children, a chilly bin, and what she described as "a really nice cos salad". By 11.47am, the salad was in the harbour.
"It was beautiful! Genuinely beautiful!" Whitiora told The Daily Yarn. "Lillian from the cafe across the road said it was going to be a stunner. Lillian does the oat flat whites. Lillian was wrong."
A bystander, retired public servant Greg Halloran, said he'd watched the whole thing unfold from his bench. "One minute they're putting sunscreen on. Next minute the youngest one's chasing a sunhat toward Roseneath. Bloody Wellington, eh."
MetService confirmed the southerly had been "on the cards since Friday" but conceded the timing was "a bit rude". A spokesperson noted that Wellingtonians attempting Auckland beach days do so "at their own emotional risk".
Whitiora has rescheduled for January. The cos salad has not been recovered.
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Reader Letters
Garry (Halswell)
Wouldn't have happened in '94. We had standards back then, not this furniture nonsense.
ropeable_dave
mate '94 was thirty years ago what are you on about
MumOf3_Riccarton
Honestly fair enough. Council inorganic is Thursday and my berm is a war zone anyway.
Margaret_F
Gerald would have sorted it with one phone call to the council.
BarryBishopdale
Bloody typical. And while we are at it, the council has been useless since 1987. Cyclists probably love this.
Margaret_F
Reminds me of Gerald. He would have had opinions about the pallet, I can tell you that.
couchgremlin
Lol
long_winded_garry
I remember when the whole street used to argue about whose turn it was to mow the berm and now we cannot even agree on a mattress without someone invoking the Resource Management Act for forty minutes straight like it is a royal commission.